Chapter 18

MOVING TO RED MOON, OKLAHOMA TERITORY

 On November 27, 1868, Chief Black Kettle’s camp, along the Washita River, was attacked by United States Troops from the Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Colonel Custer. The camp was located near the present town of Cheyenne, Oklahoma, an area where Wm. “Black Bill” Anderson would later homestead.

Chief Black Kettle and many of his band of  300 men, women and children were killed or captured, along with hundreds of their horses. Their camp was destroyed, even though Chief Kettle had posted a white cloth flag about the size of a blanket, sewed on a long pole, so that soldiers would know they were a peaceful tribe. The brave Colonel Custer (?) ignored the peace sign and attacked the sleeping tribe on a snowy morning. Chief Red Moon and his Cheyenne tribe were camped close to Black Kettle at the time of the fight. He later reported that Custer had exaggerated the number of Indians he had killed (Custer was bucking for a promotion to General).

“The ponies, after being shot, broke away, and ran about bleeding until they dropped. In this way the snow on the whole bend of the river was made red with blood. This is the reason we call it the red moon”. Story by Mrs. Lone Wolf, a survivor of the attack. After the attack many of these same Cheyenne’s left their reservation and went north, where they took part with Sitting Bull in the massacre of General Custer in 1876. History of Oklahoma and Indian Territory and Homeseekers’s Guide, By J.L. and Ellen Puckett

After William Henry Anderson and Tommie Lee Boles were married, they lived with Tommie’s sister, Ellen, in her home in Bowie, Texas. Their first child, Noma was born in Aunt Ella’s home in 1895.

Aunt Ellen Gililland’s home in Bowie, Texas

In 1897, Bill and Tommie decided to move back to La Junta, Colorado. However, along the way they discovered an opportunity to homestead 160 acres along Rush Creek in the Red Moon community. Thirty years earlier Colonel Custer would have crossed this same land along Rush Creek on his way to the Black Kettle massacre.

 My father Orren Albert Anderson was born on the Rush Creek Ranch in 1898, along with his siblings, Virgil, 1900, Lillie, 1902, William Jack, 1904, Leona, 1910 and Georgia Faye, 1912. The Red Moon community “had only a house, which served as a saloon, grocery store, post office and George Shufeldt’s home”. The community no longer exists, however Judy Tracy, our Cheyenne historian, now lives on this land she calls the Red Moon Farms.

 In 1902, William Henry Anderson applied “To secure Homesteads to Actual Settlers on the Public Domain”. The law read “after living on the land for 5 years and making improvements, you went to the town site house or the assigned court in Kingfisher, Guthrie or Mangum and paid a little fee to acquire your land patent”. Story by Judy Tracy. Bill’s Homestead Certificate Number 3768, Application 13114, was hand written and titled “By the president T. Roosevelt”. The Instrument was filed for record, April 14, 1902, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma Territory.

Picture above of Arch Anderson, center and Dick Cann, surveying Anderson’s land in the northwest Oklahoma Community of Red Moon in 1901.